A Recipe for Employee Engagement and Retention
Biscuitville Fresh Southern, a family-owned company, has been serving up authentic Southern cuisine since 1966. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the company is committed to using locally sourced ingredients from family-owned farms, traditional cooking methods, and baking freshly made biscuits every 15 minutes. Biscuitville operates 87 locations across Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, a 78,000-square-foot distribution center, and employs nearly 2,500 team members.
Due to its continued growth (an impressive 8 – 10% annually), Biscuitville needed a robust frontline learning management system (LMS) to strengthen its training programs, automate and streamline processes, and give employees more control over their learning journey.
Clearly defining the problem
Because restaurants are a high-turnover industry, Biscuitville needed to prioritize workforce development to enhance employee engagement and improve their retention rates.
The company initially lacked a formal training structure, which created multiple challenges. Online learning was not available to team members, so employees had to heavily rely on tribal knowledge from their coworkers to learn new skills. Also, all training was in English despite a growing need to offer it in multiple languages.
Without an LMS, Biscuitville’s L&D team struggled to keep training materials up-to-date, and managers had no visibility into their team’s training needs or progress. Training engagement was also extremely low, with completion rates at only 20-30%. Generating training completion reports and tracking compliance with health and safety regulations was also nearly impossible.
“Our biggest win is being able to track all of our training activity. It was a nightmare before Schoox.”
Kailey Skinner, Instructional Designer and Learning Manager, Biscuitville Fresh Southern
In addition, employees didn’t have a clear path to management. They had little visibility into the skills they needed to develop or how to build them for career advancement.
“Before implementing Schoox, employees’ access to training and resources was limited. They often felt a lack of support from their supervisor and uncertainty about which skills would be most valuable to learn,” explained Kailey Skinner, Instructional Designer and Learning Manager at Biscuitville Fresh Southern. “They also had limited opportunities to practice and apply new skills in the workplace.”
Conducting the LMS bake-off
Biscuitville initiated a comprehensive assessment to inform its new learning and development strategy by identifying employee training needs and key operational challenges. Their L&D team conducted extensive field research, gathering data through:
- 230 surveys administered across restaurant locations
- data collection spanning multiple job roles and positions
- on-site assessments of training requirements
Their research found that employees’ top three pain points were the auditing system, brand standards, and manager training content.
Following their employee survey, Biscuitville launched a comprehensive analysis of learning and training programs across the industry. They examined how similar organizations approached employee development and what platforms they utilized. The company combined these competitive insights with feedback from the survey to establish key criteria for selecting a learning management system (LMS).
Using their criteria as a framework, Biscuitville thoroughly evaluated more than 16 LMS vendors to see which vendors could rise to meet their challenges. “Our priority was finding a learning platform that could deliver on multiple fronts,” said Skinner. “We required a comprehensive resource library, strong tracking capabilities to monitor training completion and user-friendly tools to help our employees excel in their daily work.”
Biscuitville spent nearly a year creating and testing content and collecting feedback from team members before selecting Schoox.
Rolling out an appealing learning program
The L&D team developed a comprehensive digital career path matrix to assess existing training resources and identify gaps. Implementation began at the area level and then expanded company-wide, starting with store managers and cascading through management levels. This top-down approach enabled managers to get to know the system, enhancing their ability to guide their teams effectively.
With Schoox, we’ve delivered over 15,000 hours of training. Our average companywide course completion rates are now between 92-95%.”
Kailey Skinner, Instructional Designer and Learning Manager, Biscuitville Fresh Southern
Additionally, each Biscuitville employee was required to obtain certification in one position and received personalized support from an L&D team member during the process.
Exceeding program expectations
With the implementation of Schoox, the organization achieved remarkable efficiency improvements in learning and development operations. Training administration time dropped by 95%, while the onboarding process became 57% more efficient, reducing new hire time-to-productivity from seven days to three days. Employee turnover is at an all-time low, driven by increased engagement levels.
“With Schoox, we improved retention by 30%, via employee engagement, career paths, and on-the-job reviews. Employees now ask what additional training they can complete.”
Aku Patel, Vice President of Restaurant Excellence, Biscuitville Fresh Southern
Biscuitville’s improved training program translated into measurable business results. Quarterly limited-time offer sales increased by 2%, guest satisfaction rose by 5% through improved service standards and order accuracy, and food waste decreased by 16% due to more consistent frontline staff training.
These significant improvements in operational efficiency, employee engagement, and business metrics demonstrate how modernizing learning and development can impact both company culture and boost bottom-line results.
Watch the webinar So Fresh: How Biscuitville Delivers Value from Digital Learning to learn more.
